SCHUMAN / SOWERBY / COPLAND

The Pulitzer Project

William Schuman (1910–1992)

A Free Song*

(1943 Pulitzer)

1 Part I. “Look down, fair moon”

2 Part II. Song of the Banner

Aaron Copland (1900–1990)

Appalachian Spring

(1945 Pulitzer)

3 Very Slowly

4 Allegro

5 Moderato

6 Fast

7 subito Allegro

8 As at first (slowly)

9 Doppio movimento

10 Moderato

Leo Sowerby (1895–1968)

The Canticle of the Sun*

(1946 Pulitzer)

11 O most high…

12 Praised be my Lord God with all his creatures…

13 Praised be my Lord for our sister the moon…

14 Praised be my Lord for our brother the wind…

15 Praised be my Lord for our sister water…

16 Praised be my Lord for our brother fire…

17 Praised be my Lord for our mother the earth…

18 Praised be my Lord for all those who pardon one another…

19 Praised be my Lord for our sister the death of the body…

20 Blessed are they…

20 Praise ye the Lord…

*World Premiere Recording

Grant Park Orchestra & Chorus / Carlos Kalmar

Christopher Bell, chorus director

The Pulitzer Prize in Music, established in 1943, is perhaps the most coveted award in American concert life. This new CD with Chicago’s Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus and principal conductor Carlos Kalmar presents three Pulitzer Prize-winning works from the competition’s earliest years: William Shuman’s Secular Cantata No. 2, “A Free Song”; Aaron Copland’s Suite from Appalachian Spring; and Leo Sowerby’s The Canticle of the Sun for chorus and orchestra. These are the world-premiere recordings of the Shuman and Sowerby cantatas.

William Schuman’s A Free Song, winner in 1943 of the first Pulitzer Prize in Music, uses excerpts from Walt Whitman’s Drum Taps, a poetic record of his humanitarian visits to Washington, D.C.’s Civil War hospitals. Schuman (1910–1992) set Whitman’s vigorous, expansive verse to a fierce and concentrated musical style. In its review of the Grant Park Orchestra’s 2010 concert performance, the Chicago Tribune observed, “Kalmar’s account was, by turns, poignant and electric.”

One of the most recognizable and beloved American orchestral works, Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring began life as a ballet score for the Martha Graham Dance Company. A favourite of many listeners is its five variations on the Shaker theme “Simple Gifts.” The original ballet score, for chamber orchestra, won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize. Copland (1900–1990) later arranged an orchestral suite, its most familiar incarnation and the one heard on this CD.

Cedille CDR90000125